I Am
by Ferix79
Summary: After defeating the Borgia, all I can do is wait. Ezio returns to Roma after the end of Brotherhood. NO SPOILERS for Revelations.


_This fic contains __**NO SPOILERS**__ for Revelations, so __**don't spoil me**__ if you already know something about the game! There __**ARE SPOILERS**__ for Brotherhood, though, but I assume most are already finished with ACB. _

It is all over, now. I have returned to Roma and everything is quiet. Everything is peaceful.

The shops I have restored continue to grow every day, welding only the best quality of armor and weaponry, selling beautiful paintings, and dying the citizens clothing to whatever the current fashion is. Red and yellow have become wildly popular, recently.

The three factions of the city—the courtesans, the thieves, and the mercenaries—have returned to their normal, or should I say, more normal duties. Only rarely do I hire them nowadays. No more guards to distract while I sneak into restricted buildings, and no more battles to fight.

And of course my assassins—real assasssinos now, no longer inexperienced novices—oh, how they flourish. I was worried, when I began recruiting them years ago, that eventually one would die on a mission far from home. Losing a brother or sister is difficult enough, but to lose one to a faraway city such as London, Moscow, or even Constantinople? Horrid. An absolutely horrid thought. When I returned to Roma after my absence I was elated to see all of them still alive, and so skilled. I can not help but see them as my own children, now grown up and fending for themselves. Do you know what the name of my first recruit was? Giovanni. Giovanni…

The apple is gone now, sealed away forever, hopefully. I can not shake the feeling, though, that someday, somehow, someone else will find it. The thought does not bother me, though. As I feel that, while it was useful, the apple was not meant for me, and not for my time. It possesses much more power than anyone should be able to hold, especially in the palm of his hand. No, I can surely say it is not meant for our time.

So all is quiet now. The thieves race each other through the fields while the mercenaries spar with each other in the ruins, and the courtesans come out sometimes, after a long night or day, to point and giggle at the men's antics, and the men try—and fail—to impress them.

My assassins, and our growing number of recruits, now patrol the rooftops, always on the lookout for any sign of remaining vigilante Templars. Oh, the city guards are still up there, of course, but my assassins are much too cunning for them.

Leonardo has been, after so many years, freed from the Borgia rule, just as the city was. I saw him briefly when I rescued him from the Hermeticists, but he has since left Roma for Milano. It is not that he did not want to stay with the assassins, he told me, but the whole Borgia incident left a bad taste in his mouth, and he preferred to leave the city for some time. It is understandable. I hear from some of my recruits that he travels often between Milano and Firenze, but I am unsure why. I must try and pay him a visit soon, perhaps if he returns to Firenze. It has been a while since I have returned to my own childhood home, anyway.

I speak of travelling from Roma so lightly because there is simply nothing else to do. The courtesans, thieves, and mercenaries gather any information they can, but it is little. That fact is a blessing, I suppose, even if it has left me with little excitement as of late. Occasionally I speak with Claudia, Bartolommeo, or La Volpe about of whisperings of potential Templar plots or uprisings, but they are nothing to worry over. For now I suppose I can be content with training new assassin recruits and planning visits to Leonardo, Firenze, and perhaps my family's and Cristina's graves, too. It has been far too long.

All I can do is wait. Wait and wile my time away in what has become this calm before the storm that is bound to hit me any day now.

Any day now.

This takes place at the end of Brotherhood, though I guess it is not technically cannon in regards to the game. After you finish the last memory sequence in the game you are returned to Rome, unable to exit the Animus. I believe the date in game is still 1503, but I just modified it to be after 1507, which is after the last memory. It is said that Ezio returned to Roma afterwards, anyway, and continued to strengthen the brotherhood until the beginning of Revelations.

The part about the assassin recruits is based off my play through. While your recruits can die in game, none of mine ever did. Also, my first recruit really was named Giovanni. It was so bittersweet ;_;


End file.
